The situation was certainly alarming. It was very fortunate that at the time of the outbreak the position of the King was otherwise so strong, and England’s foreign affairs in such good condition, that every effort could be centred on the suppression of the revolt. The insurgents evidently meant business. Sir Christopher Ascugh, gentleman usher to the King, wrote to Cromwell, October 6, ‘The rebels ar in nombre of men of armys well harnesyd x or xii m spars and bows; & xxx m other sum harnesyd and sum not harnesyd ... and all the contrey Rysys holly as they goo before them.... Mellessent your s_er_u_au_nt they have hanged & Baytyd Bellowe to deth wyth Dogg_es_ wyth a bull skyn vpon his bake wyth many Regorous word_es_ agaynst your lordeshepp[451].’ Letters were sent to the principal men in the county, asking them to use all their efforts to check the revolt, and the King later declared his intention to take the field himself[452]. Cromwell’s nephew Richard[453] got all the arrows and implements of war out of the Tower, and dispatched a number of men to Lincolnshire, among them sixty or eighty masons and carpenters, who were at work on his uncle’s house. Cromwell himself was in great fear. The Imperial ambassador informs us[454] that the whole blame for the insurrection was laid on him. Norfolk was recalled to the Court, whence he had been banished at Cromwell’s suggestion, and the Duke arrived at London, happy as he had never been before in the thought that the first step towards the ruin of his rival had been taken. But in this he was doomed to disappointment, for Cromwell retained his ascendancy; the King, according to Chapuys, had been very reluctant to send for the Duke, and when the latter was dispatched again to raise men and prevent the spreading of the revolt, he was overtaken by a most ‘discomfortable’ message from the Court, ordering him to send his son in his place while he himself remained at home[455]. Cromwell had not only succeeded in getting him away from the Court, but had also prevented his having a hand in the suppression of the rebellion. The Lord Privy Seal himself was content with maintaining his position at the King’s side. It would have been sheer madness for him to have marched against the rebels in person. If the Lincolnshire men could have murdered him, they probably would have been induced to return quietly to their homes. Nor did Cromwell even dare to give orders at arm’s length, or in any way to undertake the management of the royal forces. He kept himself consistently in the background; almost all our information concerning the rebellion is contained in the correspondence of the King with Norfolk and Suffolk. The few letters which Cromwell did write in connexion with the Pilgrimage of Grace are quite unimportant[456]. They consist for the most part of messages of profuse and almost hysterical thanks to the leaders of the King’s party for their loyal service. It was not until the revolt had been thoroughly suppressed that Cromwell ventured again to assume the general direction of public affairs.